The Dark Between The Stars

ONE HUNDRED AND SEVENTEEN
AELIN

With emergency evacuation alarms hammering through the Iswander complex, the green priest prepared his escape. Aelin didn’t know what was happening out there, nor did he care. Everything else was insignificant to what he knew now.

The song of the cosmos continued to play in his head, deafening him with blinding colors, filling the backs of his eyes with incomprehensible words. He tasted music at the back of his tongue.

Ever since being exposed to the revelatory bloater flash, Aelin had felt the surreal symphony inside his mind. He never wanted it to stop, and his heart ached to know that he had dipped only a single droplet out of an infinite ocean.

How he wished he could have shared this with his poor brother…

Since his rescue, he had been comatose off and on, but Aelin did not mind. While unconscious and drifting, he found that he was able to bask in all the wonders that filled his head. When he woke, though, he felt dull and stupid, his perceptions fuzzy, his vision limited. His treeling was dead—withered by the overload of the flash—but the mind that now encompassed him was orders of magnitude greater than even the verdani.

He had come back to himself in the Iswander Industries medical center, swimming up through the murk of sedatives that the doctors gave him, only to find that the modular station was in the midst of a turbulent evacuation. Frantic people rushed through the corridors. A crewman ran by, shouting into the doorway, “Another ship leaves in two minutes. Better be gone before the shadow kills us all!”

In the adjoining room, two doctors were helping an injured ekti worker who had suffered a mishap at one of the pumping stations. One of the doctors looked up at him. “Good, you’re awake—prepare to evacuate!” He quick-released the unnecessary restraints that had held Aelin down. “You’ll have to walk on your own. Hurry!”

People scurried toward evacuation hatches and landing bays. The doctors guided the other patient into the corridor, and Aelin eased himself out of his infirmary bed. He felt weak, as if his muscles had forgotten how to function.

But he didn’t want to evacuate—in fact, he had no intention of leaving the bloaters. He had a plan.

Aelin made his way to a small garment closet, unfolded the door, and slipped inside, closing it behind him. Several minutes later the doctors returned, looking for him. “Where the hell did the green priest go?”

“Everybody’s evacuating. Somebody must have taken him.” Grumbling, the doctors left.

Aelin let out a long sigh. Evacuation alarms continued, but by now most of the people had departed from the station.

He emerged from the closet and tore off his loose infirmary gown. He was a green priest; he needed no clothing other than his traditional loincloth. He worked his way through the well-lit corridors, creeping along, ready to hide if he heard someone coming. The station seemed empty.

In the loading bay, Aelin found one of the inspection pods still sitting there. The small ship was too slow for anyone to use it for escape, but it suited him just fine. He did not wish to get away. Whatever the crisis might be, it did not interest him.

With his mind so vast and open, it took him considerable effort to limit his thoughts to mundane matters, such as operating the controls of the pod. This was important. He felt the pull of that presence out there.

As the inspection pod drifted away from the station, he saw the ominous shadow cloud looming above the extraction operations like a cosmic thunderstorm. Iswander ships rushed everywhere, scrambling for safety. With his newfound sensitivity, Aelin could sense the angry chaos of the Shana Rei, but the bloaters beckoned him.

He flew out into the emptiness.